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Individual Project (Clark)
Write the first paragraph of your page here. Introduction As time has progressed, technology has grown even stronger and branched out even more. From the very first form of technology, writing, to technology today, such as, the iPhone or computer, technology has allowed us to explore different opportunities and experiences that we did not know we could attain. The readers and authors of technology today have also evolved. There are now opportunities for the reader to become the author. Because of the Internet, authors are able to share the work for everyone to see. And because of this, the readers are now able to respond to the author, something that could not be done when it came to books. Because of blog posts and cites, such as Wikia, anyone can become an author and share their ideas with people from around the world. Texts started out in a written form and have now evolved to emails, text messages, and posts online. At first, the author was of more importance than the reader, but as time has progressed, the reader is now as equal importance as the author because the reader can also contribute to something that the author did not think of that may be very valuable. When it comes to the remediation of texts, technology has taken a huge toll on that. Movies and video games are now being remade to include much more advanced graphics and uses of technology. Communities of various texts have also taken over the Internet. Now, instead of fans liking a movie or video game at home and just talking about it with their friends, there are now able to share their opinions about that text online with a huge fan base. Communities are able to completely change a text to whatever they please. An example of communities that are very devoted to their text are the fans of Veronica Mars. The show was originally cancelled, until fans donated enough money in order to make a Veronica Mars movie. Thomas, Rob. "The Veronica Mars Movie Project". Kickstarter, 2014. Because of the response of many readers, a movie was ablle to be made. This goes to show that the Internet has had a huge advantage when it comes to communities interacting with each other. Big Brother Technology has allowed for fans to create their own website dedicated to a certain TV show or video game. When it comes to the TV show, Big Brother, a group of fans have dedicated their own time to talk about the show, thus creating a huge popularity of the show. By looking at fan bases on Wikia and Big Brother Junkies, I will be able to show how fans keep Big Brother interesting and share what they think will happen, what they know will happen, or just comments.Big Brother Junkies: http://www.bigbrotherjunkies.com/privacy-policy/ Fans can gossip about past shows or talk about what is to come with people who are also interested in Big Brother. These fans who are obsessed with Big Brother are able to communicate from all over the world just through a website. When focusing on Big Brother fans, most of them share one interest, and that is spoilers. Spoiling Big Brother is a kind of hobby for some fans. This leads to the connnection of the reading, "Spoiling Survivor". In Henry Jenkins', "Spoiliing Survivor", he dicusses an online community of fans of the TV show Survivor that literally spoil it.Jenkins, Henry. "Spoiling Survivor". Course Readings HUM 211 Jenkins' says, "As we have seen, the age of media convergence enables communication rather than individualistic, modes of reception." This quote relates how technology has not only changed in itself, but how it has changed communication as a whole. Every week, the community members contribute some type of spoiler for the show. In the reading, there is a certain member of the community that seems to know more information and spoilers than anyone else, which draws more attention to him. Some people think that this certain person, known as ChillOne, happens to be the producer of the show, Mark Burnett. There are many different opinions when it comes to spoilers. People either get really into them, or get mad when they hear them. But, certain communities are dedicated to spoiling shows. "Spoiling Survivor" definitely explores a community that is all about spoiling the show, and there are also several communities that are all about spoiling Big Brother. Analyzing Big Brother Knowledge Communities In order to be considered a part of a "Knowledge Community", that person has to be educated in the subject they are talking about. When it comes to the knowledge community based around Big Brother, the members involved have to know what is going on in every episode and even past seasons. They have to know the game and events that the players partake in. A knowledge community known as, Big Brother Junkies, devotes their time to discussing the game with other fans and also sharing knowledge they already know about the upcoming episode or a player in general. This is basically what a knowledge community is. A community that shares their knowledge about a certain show. Big Brother Junkies is a website that is just spoilers for the show. People are allowed to even donate to the website. There are different categories on the site that allow for you to catch up on any part of the show that you want to know what has happened or what is going to happen. There are also several pages that allow you to explore different players and read comments and spoilers about them. A lot of them contain their background information that people have worked very hard on finding out. Being a spoiler is not just something people do for fun, it is kind of like their job. Members get competitive in order to deliver the spoilers before someone else does. Henry Jenkins', "Spoiling Survivor" focuses on a knowledge community that is based around the TV show Survivor. The main goal of the knowledge community is to release spoilers for the TV show, kind of like Big Brother Junkies. In "Spoiling Survivor", Jenkins talks a lot about how the members of knowledge communities have to have a certain intelligence about them in order to find out all this information. First of all, it is not easy to find spoilers, The members of Big Brother Junkies have to do serious research in order to find out spoilers. They have to be clever and fast in finding out their information. In "Spoling Survivor", Jenkins talks mostly about a certain member of the knowledge community, known as ChillOne. ChillOne seems to know more information then anyone else on the website, which draws all the information on him. Some people think that ChillOne even ruined the season for them because he knew way too much. Other people think that Mark Burnett, the producer of Big Brother might be undercover as ChillOne and is giving away spoilers just so the ratings will go up, which did happen. People wanted to watch every episode just to see if ChillOne was right, and most of the time he was. This made the ratings rise out of the roof. Was it really Mark Burnett giving away all this information? If so, it was a very smart thing to do. In Big Brother Junkies, there is not really a ChillOne person that is higher than everyone else. The creator of the website however, seems to know a lot more information than most people that are members of the community. Because he watches every episode, he gained a lot of knowledge about the game and the players. This is what Jenkins is talking about when he says, "Survivor spoiling is collective intelligence in practice." "Spoiling Survivor" It takes practice for people to become skilled in whatever they are talking about. And that is the main reason for a knowledge community, to share knowledge that you have learned about a certain text, and communicate to others to gain even more knowledge. Activism Activism is when reader communities form just to influence the production of a text. They try to change the way the game is played or what certain players get to be on a show or can return. Big Brother Junkies is definitely a community that tries to influence the show's decision on what kind of game they should play or who should be able to play. People get very competitive when it comes to decisions like this. In a lot of episodes, there is a lot of controversy and violence inside the Big Brother house, and because of this, members of knowledge communities get upset at the producer and the entire company and try to get them to change some things that happen in the house. There is a page on Wikipedia titled Controversy an d Criticism of Big Brother, Wikipedia page on Big Brother Controversy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversy_and_criticism_of_Big_Brother_(U.S.) that engages every bad thing that Big Brother has done. It has different categories to certain events that have happened in the Big Brother house that were not very good. From bullying and offensive language, to fights and violence, this page covers every bit of controversy that has happened inside the Big Brother house. You can see for yourself comments that house guests have said while on the show. Because of things like this, people have gotten mad at house guests and have ultimately tried to change who gets kicked off. In Big Brother Junkies, a comment was made from several people how they wanted a certain person gone or wanted a certain person to win. In almost every category of the website, there was someone giving their opinion on what they wanted to happen. A lot of people of the community comment on blogs just because they want something to happen their way. They are trying to influence who gets sent home or who wins, which is exaclty the point of activism. Cults A cult is a group of people that have an excessive fascination with a certain something. There are tons of Big Brother fans that are so obsessed with the show that it is literally all they talk about or watch. After looking at the Big Brother Junkies website, you can easily tell who is obsessed with the show.Big Brother Junkies Most people do not even realize they are part of the Big Brother cult. They merely think they are just gossiping about the show or giving their own opinions, but when it turns into a constant thing for every single episode, that is when it can be considered that you are in a cult. Some people that comment only do it every once in awhile, which is fine, and not really considered to be cult-like. This relates back to the knowledge communities because in ordered to have knowledge on the subject, you have to do a lot of research using your own personal time. People who do this, especially the owner of Big Brother Junkies, are doing it everyday of their lives, which make them part of a cult. After reading a couple comments made by fans of the show, it is easy to see who spends most of their time watching it. I will admit that I am a fan of Big Brother and have watched every season. Occasionally my family and I will get on the Internet to see spoilers every once in awhile. It is amazing to see how quick people post comments about the episode we were just watching. This is the time where those people are considered to be obsessed with the show and part of a cult like group that are dedicated in spoiling the show or just gossiping about it. It is easy to see how obsessed people become over the show. But, some people take it too far when they try to get as much knowledge as possible about upcoming episodes just to try and spoil it for other people. The cults and knowledge communities also relate back to technology and how easy it is for people to communicate about a show just with the touch of a button. References